ARTS&LIFE
THEATER

T

he young-adult play Connected by 
the celebrated Israeli playwright and 
television writer Ori Urian will be 
performed for the first time in English at 
the Sponberg Theatre at Eastern Michigan 
University Campus on March 9 at 7 p.m. and 
March 10 at 2 p.m.
Urian, who has 
been recognized 
by the Children’s 
Stage Awards and 
the Israeli Academy 
Awards, has just been 
nominated for the 
ASSITEJ inspirational 
playwright award. 
With the assistance 
of the Zelma Weisefeld 
Grant for Culture and 
Education from the 
Jewish Federation 
of Ann Arbor and a 
Michigan Arts and 
Culture minigrant, 
Urian himself will be 
an artist in residence 
in Ann Arbor from 
March 3-10, and will 
do talkbacks with the 
audience after the 
performances. 
Connected is a play about the way 
technology has impacted the lives of young 
people, and not necessarily for the better. 
It’s about a group of high school students 
who get lost on a field trip when they decide 

to stray from the group. In the play, Urian 
examines the way that an overreliance on 
technology harms us, whether in the form 
of trusting a GPS over what one sees with 
one’s own eyes, or for the way social media 
alienates people from each other, leading 
people to prioritize 
their number of 
followers and status 
online over real-life 
relationships.
Such a topic is 
relevant to our 
contemporary moment, 
oversaturated as it is by 
technology. 
However, in the wake 
of the war between 
Israel and Gaza and the 
way it has reverberated 
here in the U.S. in 
city council meetings 
and campus unrest, 
this play is especially 
relevant in that it 
highlights the ways 
we are bound up with 
one another, and how 
social media foments 
conflict by fostering 
gossip and pernicious assumptions, leading 
us to withhold basic generosity from one 
another. 
 

Bob Erlewine is the director of EMU’s Center for Jewish 

Studies.

Israeli playwright Ori Urian to perform 
a talkback with audiences.

See the Young-Adult Play 
Connected on EMU Stage

BOB ERLEWINE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS 

50 | FEBRUARY 29 • 2024 
J
N

Ori Urian
Ori Urian is a graduate of the 
Nissan Nativ Acting Studio 
in Tel Aviv (2009), The 
Playwriting School (2011) and 
of the Thelma Yellin High 
School of Arts. In the military, 
he served at the IDF Theater. 
He has written extensively 
for the stage and screen.
Amongst his playwrighting 
credits are Behind the Door 
(Habima National Theater), 
Life is A Cabaret (Cameri 
Theater) and The Three 
Musketeers. Screenwriting 
credits include The Tree 
House Kids and Shakshuka.
Urian has also acted in 
many Israeli plays, commer-
cials, movies and TV shows. 
His acting credits include 
appearances in Beit Lessin 
Theater, Gesher Theater, 
Haifa Theater, The Orna Porat 
Children’s Theater, HaShaa 
Theater, The Kibbutz Theatre, 
Mofa Theater, Tzavta Theater, 
Hop Channel, HOT, Yes, 
Children’s Channel and more. 
Urian is a member of the 
Fringe Committee of the 
Israeli Ministry of Culture, 
and a lector of plays at 
Habima National Theater 
and Cameri Theater in Tel 
Aviv. He is the winner of 
Best Supporting Actor Award 
(2017) and Best Leading 
Actor Award (2021) in the 
Children’s Stage Awards, 
2017; Best Teen TV Series 
and Best Script in the Israeli 
Academy Awards for The 
Tree House Kids, 2020- 
2021. 

DETAILS Tickets are $10 dollars for adults and $5 for seniors and students. 
Tickets can be purchased here: https://emich.ludus.com/200447673. For questions, 
contact jewish.studies@emich.edu.

Ori Urian

